Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-10-21

nut also by tne DdSef SOft, because tllGfe Is
none so vile but he can ieer at spirits and
ghosts. To such leader, all laughter is
like the cracking of thorns beneath pot;
and if You should be so i'll advised rs to
laugh in Mr.. Brudenel's presence he would
become that pot and presently boil over.
As for Lady Augusta, his second wife,
There is a certain type of wife, which
will / fear, with the march of womnn's
education, and the guilty alton of her crit
cal faculty, grow rapidly rarer until il
finally becomes extinct. ! mean the wife
who ardently adopts her husbands creed.
convictions, dogmas, hobbies, and Party,
rs her own, and enters into the very inner
spirit of that creed or Party. Thus, there
is no person in the world who more pro-
foundly believes the doctrine of the High
Church than the wife--if she he of this type
of the Ritulistic clergyman: there is no
person more profoundly agitated about the
future state of her own soul than the wife
of the Calvinist; there is no one who more
honestly believes in the Connection than the
wife of the minister If the husband be Il
man of science the wife will breathe the
atmosphere tof science, and live wholly in
the scientific world; if lie be an artist she
will live among the studios and talk of art:
of music all her life; if he be a shopkeeper
but here we draw the line, because there
is it must be admitted universal ten
dency to sink the shop.
Lady Augusta belonged to this type.
She felt no doubts-shp had no hesitations.
have seen too much" she said - to adj
NIT of any room for doubt After all. my
dears she added. " one is possessed of eve.
| and of tlp ,anepniDrr for,1tN-
on the verge of new revelation. | look
for it daily. | expect the Prophet: he may
come at any day or at any moment. and
then OH thcn-there will begin for the
world in my drawing room Il new Age of
Faith which will restore happiness for ever
to suIerng,humanity,
The days passed and the looked for Pro
phct came not.
Lady Augusta, handsome woman still.
ana grande dame de par lie monde was
now thirty-fve. She could therefore ne
longer welcome that Prophet in her youth.
Vow if anything wonderful is to happen to a
woman in her lifetime, She would naturally
prefer it to happen in the time of her youth
and beauty 1t would be delightful to be
come the friend in pure Platonic bonds
of Il Prophet. to make his earthly existence
smooth and happy for him; to be young
with him and to grow old with him. But
he came not; and Lady Augusta's youth
took to itself wings and flew away.
Perhaps, however. the Prophet could be a
venerable sage Meantime. five and thirty
is not old for a Queen of any cause. Lady
Augusta was the undoubted Queen of the
Spiritualists, and She maintained her court
with graciousness and hospitality truly
admirable.
To be taken up by Lady Augusta was to
secure public attention: every medium
made straight for her drawing-room: her
name was perfectly well known in New
York st. Petersburg Paris, and in every
spiritualistic centre. No doubt the occult
philosophers Mahatmas and Adept of Tlhbet
regard her with favor, though they have
never yet visited her She had her circle
of courtiers as well as her continual stream
of ever rev and richly gifted mediums who
wanted a clientale AMI an income: round
her were gathered all those thinkers who
are perpetualy engaged III trying to look
behind the Veil
Behind the Veil. We, who live in this
great crowded ant hill and struggle and toll
daily with our fellow ants, Tearing our bur
dens and living in the present, rejoicing
in the sunshine of the moment. satisfied
with life, contented if we do not suffer
pain, careless for the most part of what
may happen when this life is done. we hum
bic, common folks say, hardly know any
thing of the world which thinks of nothing
but to pry behind the Veil TO us it is a
great black bank of cloud. lying all round
us which ever way we look 1t is as the
black spaces between the stars: we cannot
look long upon it without reeling of the
brain. Sometimes, to those who think of
it, it seems to roll toward us, sometimes
to roll back little way: whenever we
make a great physical discovery there is a
feeling that now, at last we may have
rolled it away altogether and for ever.
But it does not roll away and. nv brothers
| think that it will never either lift or roll
away, whatever We may discover. and that
we know already everything that mankind
will ever be permitted to know Of the other
wo"l. Even if we find the secret of birth
and growth and decay, even if we prolong
our own lives Indefinitely. the secret of the
other world viii never, | am sure. be found
ont by any efforts of human Ingenuity.
But, for these peonle life has no other
interest. For them there is nothing else.
G,,i.